Although entertaining, New Year's Day leaves a craving for substance

NEW YEAR'S DAY is a modest yet ambitious film that entertains but
leaves one craving for more realistic substance and less stereotype. Henry
Jaglom, the writer and director, opens with a monologue directed to the
audience on his need to start anew, to lock up his house in Los Angeles and
move to New York City on the symbolic eve of the new year. Upon arriving in
NYC after an apparently grueling red-eye flight, Jaglom, now playing the
character Drew, finds three women who have been living together for four
years and who are still occupying his apartment.

A misunderstanding with the lease results in the four of them spending an
intimate New Year's Day together discovering many of the similarities in
their situations. Each one wants to move onto the future, but must first
confront the present. This conflict is partially portrayed through the
parade of friends and family who, depending on their motives, come to
either bid farewell or hinder the roommates.

Drew watches and interacts with the visitors with a wary scrutiny, trying
to discern each person's intent and relationship with the women --
especially Lucy (Maggie Jackobson) -- while searching for further
understanding and new perspective to his own mid-life troubles. This is
precisely what New Year's Day invites the audience to do: reflect,
observe, interact, and learn.

But the film falls short of capturing contemporary social and
interpersonal interaction and is touched by a didactic triteness instead of
an inspiring realism. The themes of finding new beginnings from old ones
and of the similarities of human experience are depicted heavy-handedly,
and one feels bludgeoned by the message. This lack of subtlety is seen
clearly in the closing of the film as Drew once again addresses the camera
with a soliloquy on the inter-connections of future and present.

The characters, with the exception of Lucy and Drew, are stereotypes of a
self-absorbed New York culture; Winona (Melanie Winter), a wannabe-mother
photographer, and Annie (Gwen Welles), the obsessive, shy roommate, are not
full or realistic characters in which the actresses can showcase their
talents.

Although the relationship between Annie and Lucy is probed, more of the
film could focus on Annie's declaration of love and its affect on Lucy.
Instead, Annie is left behind, and the camera focuses once again on Lucy
and Drew. Their relationship is also quite sexual; Drew seems to have
trouble removing himself, especially his hands, from Lucy. In fact, many of
the men in the movie come off as over-sexed jerks (complete with lines
about how they had forgotten how to feel until a beautiful young woman --
in this case Lucy -- transforms them).

Lucy and Drew learn from each other that moving on is difficult but
possible. Jaglom recognizes the complexity of sex roles, especially those
of his gender, and is not afraid to portray males in an unfavorable light.
The unbelievable promiscuity of Lucy's boyfriend, Billy, further
illustrates this. His callousness and insensitivity are humorous yet
disturbing. Milos Forman makes a guest appearance as the building
superintendent whose friendship with the women seems patronizing and
intimate.

Jaglom's directorial talent is most visible in the character of Lucy
whose own life-experiences -- working with dolphins, teaching chimpanzees
sign language, and doing voices for cartoons -- are deftly incorporated
into the film. When Jaglom blurs the line between fiction and reality he
truly captures nuances of the personal in contemporary society. To further
develop the realism created in Lucy, Jaglom suggested that Jackobson's
philandering ex-lover, David Duchovy, play Billy in the film. Jackobson
initially refused and then reconsidered and found that the scenes were
liberating as well as humorous -- life imitates art imitates life.

New Year's Day hits upon some familiar angst-ridden anxieties of
contemporary culture but fails to render them memorable or realistic.
Still, Henry Jaglom is a director with an eye for the intimate and
personal, and definitely one to keep an eye on.